Healthy eating key to long life for 105-year-old

ALTADENA - Ethel Engstrom still takes good care of herself at her Altadena home, eating well and drinking about 12 cups of black coffee per day.

In a week, she'll be 106 years old.

"I have no aches or pains and no medication. And I'm not using my cane," said Engstrom, though she admits that she sometimes has to lean on someone's arm.

Engstrom will host a birthday celebration at her home Saturday, a week earlier than her birthday on April 14, because she wants to accommodate her nephew, Tom Shoebridge, who is visiting from Canada. About 15 friends and family will be there.

The dinner is a change from the usual night out at a restaurant, and gives Engstrom a chance to do some of the cooking.

It amazes many family and friends that she's still so active.

"She does so much charity work," said Betty Cleveland, whose daughter got to know Engstrom through a children's charity.

Engstrom often knits mittens for Navajo children and lap robes for elderly people in group homes.

She's originally from Canada, born to a farming family in the prairie just across the border from North Dakota. Shoebridge is her only remaining relative from there.

"I was born before there was a boundary line between Canada and the United States," Engstrom said. " They just had a red post, and that's all that kept them apart."

There was a highway being built by the time Engstrom left with her new husband for the U.S., during the Depression.

They were seeking work, and eventually wound up in California.

"It was pretty rough time in those times," she said.

Engstrom found work at a bank, where she stayed for 31 years before retiring in the 1970s. Her husband worked at Lockheed Martin.

Now, Engstrom still feels good, and has an easy explanation for her longevity.

"I don't eat junk food," she said. "I do my own cooking, I don't all this new stuff they're feeding you."